Society for the Advancement of Management Studies (SAMS)
Vacancy – Occasional Research Assistant (PT)
Diversity Scoping Exercise, October 2024 – July 2025
About the role and duties
We are seeking to appoint a part-time, hourly-paid occasional research assistant to work with the SAMS Diversity Working Group on a scoping project that has been awarded funding from the Academy of Social Sciences and the Economic and Social Research Council. The role holder will work under the guidance of members of the SAMS Diversity Working Group, primarily Ruth Woodfield and Margaret Turner.
In particular, the role holder will be expected to:
- Undertake work (370 hours allocated) under the guidance of the SAMS Diversity Working Group.
- Use internet-based searches, database searches, and analysis of quantitative survey results and coding of any answers to open-ended questions contributed by survey respondents.
- Organise, transcribe, and code (e.g., within NVivo) 5 x focus groups: PGR students; existing and exiting SAMS/JMS members; JMS referees; successful publication authors; unsuccessful authors.
Project details
As a UK-based, internationally-focused organisation, we seek to better understand our composition and the rates at which individuals with a range of background characteristics participate in key elements of our organisation, activity, and practice. We are therefore undertaking a comprehensive scoping exercise to produce an accurate picture of the background characteristics of members and participants. This will permit us to develop an evidence-based EDI strategy, targeted actions, and interventions. More specifically, we are proposing to establish an understanding of the composition of: SAMS Council; Editorial Review Board (ERB) for the Journal of Management Studies (JMS); JMS Strategic Advisory Board (SAB); JMS editorial team; JMS active referees; and JMS authors. Although we have partial data in some areas, we currently have a limited understanding of this landscape. We will explore our membership and participants by the following characteristics: sex, gender, ethnicity, nationality, disability.
We will also undertake a listening exercise that will take the form of five post-scoping focus groups designed to provide a voice for members and participants to talk about their experiences in relation to our organisation and activities, and to identify obstacles and facilitators to participation for any groups that are under-represented. The focus groups will also support further understanding of how and where background characteristics intersect.
Person specification
The successful application should ideally be undertaking a post-graduate degree, have experience of undertaking research, and a genuine interest in the area of diversity.
The role will begin in October 2024.
Pay
The hourly rate of pay is £16.17, aligned to University of St Andrews casual Grade 5, point 23 for research assistant roles: https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/hr/payandpensions/casualstaff/hourlyrates/.
The deadline for expressions of interest is Monday, 21st October 2024. Please submit a one-page letter of application along with an up-to-date cv to: business.sams@durham.ac.uk.